OPR has selected vehicle-miles-of-travel (VMT) as the preferred metric to comply with Senate Bill 743 (SB 743). The recommended changes to the CEQA Guidelines include a Technical Advisory that provides recommendations about VMT screening, methodology, and thresholds. These recommendations require fundamental changes in current transportation impact analysis practices and have implications for transportation planning as part of general plans and regional transportation plans. This course will explain the technical details of how to address these changes and include detailed step-by-step flow-chart explanations of how to analyze land use projects, transportation projects, land use plans (e.g., general plans), and regional transportation plans under SB 743.

Topics Include
Role of VMT in environmental impact analysis versus transportation planning
VMT estimation and forecasting methods
-Data and models
-Project versus cumulative analysis
-Differences in methods for energy, air quality, GHG, and transportation impacts
-Induced Travel
Role of the ARB's Mobile Source Strategy in establishing substantial evidence for significance thresholds
Role of RTPs and general plans in setting significance thresholds
Mitigation sources, strategies, and limitations

What You Will Learn
Students will obtain a rich set of information to help them navigate SB 743 compliance.
How to estimate and forecast VMT using a variety of methods and what limitations apply.
How to relate VMT reduction goals across technical topic areas including energy, air quality, greenhouse gases, and transportation.
What forms of VMT are most useful in measuring transportation impacts.
What decisions are required to select appropriate thresholds and what constitutes substantial evidence to support these decisions.

Who Should Attend
This course is intended for planners, engineers, policy analysts, and CEQA practitioners, among others, in private or public practice who want to understand the technical details associated with SB 743 implementation and the fundamental changes in current transportation impact analysis practices.